1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ventilated water closets and, more particularly, to a system for forceably ventilating water closets.
This invention also relates to improvements in ventilating attachments for water closets wherein the exhaust and deodorizing device are housed in the toilet lid.
2. The Prior Art
The prior art is replete with devices for drawing off and deodorizing the air from a toilet bowl. The primary problem to be solved resides in providing means for efficiently drawing air from the bowl and directing it to a point where it may be treated and deodorized for release to the surrounding environment. Some such devices employ waterways leading into the toilet bowl as means for exhausting the air. In other cases, the toilet seat has a hollowed out interior to provide air passageways therethrough to be used in drawing off air from the toilet bowl. In still other cases, various attachments have been provided for use at a point, or points, about the periphery of the toilet bowl to provide an air exhaust channel for directing air to treatment devices.
After the malodorous air has been drawn from the bowl, it is then necessary to provide treatment devices packaged in a manner which will not detract from the door of the bathroom. No matter how attractively the exhaust and deodorizing devices are housed, they remain a distraction and are often a nuisance if they must be moved in order to clean around and about them. Further, they may be unsightly if connected to the toilet bowl by means of flexible hoses or the like and/or lend an unbalanced perspective to the toilet apparatus.
These problems are partially solved by a design concept which houses the exhaust and deodorizing devices within a hollow lid cover of the toilet seat. While the appearance of such a deodorizing arrangement constitutes a major step in advancing the state of the art, the problem of communicating the malodorous air from the toilet bowl to the deodorizing device remains. The toilet seat lid must be free to be raised and lowered independent of the movement of the toilet seat itself. Proponents of the prior art have derived air conduit means for communicating the malodorous air to the deodorizer device within the hollow lid. To this end, a hollow pintle on which the toilet lid an toilet seat are pivotally mounted for independently swinging movement between their raised and lowered positions has been employed to provide an air passageway between the interior space of the toilet bowl and the deodorizing device within the hollow lid. Such hollow pintles are, however, expensive to fabricate and add significantly to the overall cost of the deodorizing system.